


Colours Speak Louder Than Words

by chandlerjames



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Soulmate AU, Well I tried, slight humour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 07:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8480647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chandlerjames/pseuds/chandlerjames
Summary: Soulmate AU where werewolves can only see in black and white until they see their soulmate, when they begin to see colour.





	

If there was one thing Remus Lupin didn’t understand it was how people lived in a black and white world, although he understood that most werewolves had to. Nevertheless, he could never forget his first day at Hogwarts. A lonely child, Remus prayed that he would meet some friends when he went to school. He prayed that somebody could accept him for who he was, condition and all, and not hate him or be scared of him. Deep down, he thought this was far too much to ask for and never really expected it to happen: who’d want to be friends with a werewolf? However, it was only in his wildest dreams that he could have ever imagined Hogwarts introducing him to his soulmate. Soulmates were something special for humans, because they were the person you got to spend the rest of your life with. For others like him, soulmates meant even more than this. To a werewolf, the world was drained of all colour until the second that you set eyes on your soulmate – once they had become your soulmate, of course. It wasn’t always upon first seeing your soulmate that the world burst into colour; it could take years. Unfortunately, most never found theirs, and Remus certainly didn’t expect to.

Remus sat on the Hogwarts Express for the first time, with his legs not reaching the floor, and his robes far too big for him. Almost immediately, another boy came and sat with him, who had unkempt, dark hair and round glasses. He introduced himself as James Potter, and instantly seemed to have an air of troublemaker about him. Peter Pettigrew was the next boy to find that they were the only boys with free seats next to them, and he introduced himself shyly. Remus’s heart was beating fast by the time a third boy began to approach them. Surely the fact that these people were sitting with them meant that he would have friends? Did this mean that his one true desire had actually happened? He wasn’t going to continue being alone in the world. And then, Sirius Black entered.

Sirius Black had longer hair than even Remus, and it was darker than James’s. Remus wasn’t sure if his hair was actually black, or just a very dark shade of some other colour, but either way it looked as though Sirius had tried to make it messy. He smirked as he leaned again the door frame, observing the other three boys. “Name’s Sirius Black, mind if I join you?” As he finished the sentence, he took a seat next to James, and Remus instantly realised that the pair would get on well. His heart sank a little at the thought, and he considered the idea that maybe he wouldn’t have three friends at Hogwarts: maybe he’d only have Peter. But then, to Remus’s surprise, Sirius started to make a conversation with him. Before they reached Hogwarts, the four boys were laughing together as though they had known each other for far longer than a couple of hours, and Remus took in the moment, as though treasuring what could soon be stolen from him.

-

It wasn’t until the fourth year at Hogwarts that everything suddenly clicked into place for Remus Lupin. The three boys he met on the Hogwarts Express never left his side since that day, and he found himself closer to them than he had ever been to anyone. True to his expectations, Sirius and James were extremely close and part of Remus was jealous about this, however neither boy made either of the others feel left out and it always felt like there was four of them in everything they did. This all seemed more than Lupin had asked for before he had started Hogwarts, and it was one fateful day in October that Remus realised just how much his friends meant to him. Or, at least, one of them.  
Lupin was sat in the library, quietly revising Defence Against the Dark Arts, when he heard someone slide into the seat next to him. He didn’t need to look up to realise it was Sirius, because Peter and James would have both gone very different ways about disturbing him. No, Sirius had seemed particularly careful around Remus lately, but not in a bad way. Part of Remus felt that Sirius learning he was a werewolf had made him scared of his friend, but he had learnt that over a year ago now and hoped that wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, Sirius was one of his friends that Lupin felt especially affectionate towards. He had been the late-comer on the Hogwarts Express, but ended up being their glue. He was what sparked the friendship between the four of them, and he was the one that seemed to fit with them all best, and Lupin couldn’t help but notice that Sirius wasn’t exactly the most unattractive person around.

“Whatcha doin’, Moony?” Sirius asked, picking up a book and pretending to read it so that he didn’t get stern looks from the Librarian. Lupin smiled and showed Sirius the front cover of the book he was making notes from, before pausing and finally looking up at him. As Remus looked at Sirius, he felt his whole world change around him. He blinked rapidly, and every time he opened his eyes he saw random bursts of colour. Sirius came into focus before anything else. Suddenly Remus could tell that Sirius had black hair, he could see the exact shade of red on the Gryffindor robes. His heart was racing madly and he spotted the different colours of the books all along the shelves, most sitting at a simple black or white, but some standing out in bursts of green or red along the shelves. The last colour Remus saw was the yellowing pages of the book in Sirius’s hands, before all was black.

One at a time, Remus opened his eyes to see the bright white light that surrounded him. The brightness was quickly interrupted by colours Remus didn’t know words for. Sirius’s skin was lighter than James’s, but darker than Peter’s. Sirius had darker eyes than either of the others, and James’s were brighter than any of them. “Moony! You’re awake!” Sirius sounded relieved as he clapped his hand on Remus’s shoulder, and suddenly it occurred to him what had happened. He had been feeling something for Sirius for a while now, but he had brushed it off. He had thought it was simply a desire for friendship. Maybe a jealousness of his and James’s closeness. But soulmate? Apparently Remus had spent the first 16 years of his life looking at the wrong gender.

Sirius seemed to be the only one remotely aware of what had happened, as James and Peter started to wildly explain how they had no clue what could have caused it and how there won’t be a full moon for another few weeks yet so it can’t have been that. Remus tried desperately to keep glancing at all three of them in equal measure to try and seem relatively like his normal self, but he found his eyes lingering on Sirius longer than the others. He took in the darkness of Sirius’s overall appearance. He was still wearing what he had been wearing in the library, and now the redness of his tie seemed less shocking. His hair, Remus noticed, was slightly lighter in some places, but on the whole it was simply black. Remus almost chuckled to himself as he realised how well Sirius’s name fit him. 

Eventually, James and Peter calmed down and Remus managed to convince them that he needed some rest. He asked them all to leave, but Sirius insisted he would stay for a few more minutes. Remus squeezed his eyes shut, his head hurting and praying that Sirius wouldn’t ask him any awkward questions. Unfortunately, praying didn’t work this time round. “I did a bit of reading, Moony. And, according to… well… every book I could find, the only thing that would cause this reaction from someone like you is if they, well, see their soulmate…” There it was. Judging by Sirius’s sound of apprehension, the feeling wasn’t mutual and Remus begged the nurse to throw Sirius out.

-

By sixth year, the world of colour was very normal to Remus. Every time either of the other three saw something brightly coloured, they rushed to check Remus had seen it. Somehow, James and Peter continued to be oblivious to the fact that Sirius was the only person around when it happened, and spent endless days pointing towards girls in the corridor and miming “was it her?” not-so-subtly. On the whole, Sirius acted as though it hadn’t happened. Remus was unsure if this broke his heart or made him give a sigh of relief. It would be extremely awkward, given that Sirius clearly didn’t feel the same way, if either of them bought it up ever again, but he couldn’t help realising that this probably meant that he was destined to live a life alone.

However, Remus was not proud to say that he found himself the drunkest of the four of them one night when they had snuck out to camp in the grounds and were playing one of their usual rounds of truth or dare. When it came to Remus’s turn, he took a final swig of his drink and stumbled over the word “truth”. A mischievous smiled played over James’s lips as he shot a glance at a confused Sirius, before asking “who was in the library the day you started seeing colours?” Remus could have sworn his own heart stopped and Sirius stopped breathing for a second. They both knew what had happened, but neither of them had told anybody else. That was just too… wrong. Taking another swig, Remus hoped that they would move on, but the question was just repeated. One thing he’d learnt was that you can’t get away from James’s dares, and certainly not his truths. He considered lying, but they would definitely force him to go up to whoever he said it was and ask them out, and the only person he wanted to date was sat right next to him.

“James, truth or dare?” Sirius shot the question back at James, clearly hoping that it would get them off of the subject, but James wasn’t that easy to challenge. He merely stated that Remus hadn’t answered, and continued to stare expectantly. After a few more moments of awkward silence, Sirius broke it. “Oh for God’s sake it was me, alright? I was in the library,” Sirius put his drink down on the grass a little too hard and didn’t look at Remus as he spoke. Suddenly, everyone was even quieter than before. 

“You idiot, we know you were there! But who did he look at?” James laughed, but it died away quickly as he realised that it had been Sirius. Sirius had been the one who bought colour into Remus’s life. Sirius was Remus’s soulmate. “You’re kidding me? Oh my God, Sirius, I’ve been telling you for the past four years that you two need to do something about your obvious crushes on each other. And you, Remus? You actually only just realised?” Now Sirius and Remus were exchanging glances. James knew? James thought that they liked each other all this time and neither of them realised?

“What do you mean? Sirius does not have a crush on me James, just drop it!” Remus considered getting up and walking away, but decided that this would be a very childish thing to do and, instead, opened a new bottle and began to drink. There was a moment of silence among all of them as Remus looked angrily between James and Peter, whilst Sirius stared helplessly at the ground. Honestly, Sirius didn’t know how he felt about Remus. Sure, he felt different towards Remus than towards James or Peter, but how could he tell what that meant?

“Tell them you don’t have a crush on me, Sirius,” he was begging by now, telling himself not to get his hopes up and start thinking that Sirius’s silence could possibly be confirmation of James’s comment. However, Sirius simply stood up and began to walk away from the other three. It didn’t take Remus long at all to make the decision to follow him, and they ended up just inside the Forbidden Forest: close enough to the exit to know how to get out, but far enough in to feel why it was forbidden. When Remus finally caught up with Sirius, he pressed him against a tree in a desperate attempt to prevent him from leaving again. They stared at each other for a moment, both of them with heavy breathing, before Remus gave up and let Sirius go. However, Sirius did not walk away. 

“Moony, I’m sorry about what James sa-“ Sirius began apologising, but Remus cut him off with the only question on his mind.

“Is it true?”

“Well, it’s not a lie,” Sirius spoke shier than Remus could have ever imagined him behaving. It was strange being able to see him so vulnerable, so uncertain about himself. Remus didn’t know how to react to learning that his soulmate could possibly feel the same way about him, but as a wave of emotions surged through him, all he could do was press Sirius back against the tree and kiss him. The second their lips touched, Remus saw fireworks. Every colour that he had had the pleasure to witness over the last two years suddenly erupted within him. Sirius didn’t even hesitate and the pair quickly found themselves in a passionate kiss that Remus never wanted to end. Remus’s hands found Sirius’s hair and he realised it felt even softer than it looked, whilst Sirius’s arms wrapped around Remus’s waist in an attempt to press their bodies impossibly closer together. 

The kiss was broken by the sound of cheers coming from just outside the Forbidden Forest. Remus smiled and pressed his forehead against Sirius’s and they both exchanged slightly annoyed but amused glances when they heard James shout “get a room!”, before Remus grinned and offered in a quiet, yet deep and needing voice “what do you say? Shall we?”


End file.
